Category: Choir

Anything BUT a Formal Concert

5/12/2023

When a High School Chorus concert has a lot of energy, variety, and fun music, it is sure to be enjoyable -- even for us older folks. My granddaughter's school is quite big. It seemed like the large wide stage was filled at some points with at least 200 hundred kids! The choral teacher had five different choirs including Men's Chorus, Women's chorus, Jazz Choir, Concert Choir, and A Cappella, plus a Bell Choir. That's a lot of kids!

The teacher announced that the concert would be about "Movin' On," so all of the songs were about moving or traveling. "Life is a Highway," "Route 66." "Fly Me to the Moon," "Moon River," "Leavin' on a Jet Plane," and plenty more. We heard such a variety from many decades and genres --- from pop to county to folk songs to Barbershop to jazz. This was anything BUT a formal concert. They started out with all of the singers lying down on the floor of the stage and waking up to sing "500 Miles." Getting a bunch of kids to dance together on stage is quite a feat. It was entertaining to watch how some kids are very coordinated and some NOT, but the amazing part was that they were all trying!

By the Finale, they were all "Dancin' in the Streets" as well as out in the aisles of the auditorium. Such a fun show!

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Such a Strange Day

5/8/2023

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This weekend was between semesters for the college professors who live in our ward. We live very close to campus, so it is understandable that many in our Ward Family are associated with the University. It was still a surprise, though, that for Testimony Meeting we barely filled half of the chapel with a very few in the gym. (We usually fill up most of the chapel and the overflow into the gym.) At choir practice we had five singers. We usually have between 20-25 singers. In Primary we had about half of the children, and only two regular teachers and the Primary President. The other teachers were substitutes.

The Chorister in Sacrament Meeting picked three unfamiliar hymns. Usually, our congregation, that is packed with Music Professors and other people who love to sing, does rather well singing the hymns, familiar or not. But this Sunday, we were quite weak. However, we did have something fun happen. Our organ was just refurbished, and after weeks of only having a piano, it was exciting to hear our fabulous organist play "coronation" music as we left the chapel for Sunday School.

In Primary, we sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" which was a favorite song for all of us older teachers and subs. So we were sad when the music leader told us not to sing for one of the verses. She wanted to hear just the children --- all 13 of them --- sing. That didn't go over very well because the kids didn't know the song as well as we older folks did. We loved singing a Primary song we actually knew!

Then in choir practice, we had 2 sopranos, 1 tenor, and 2 basses. I am still scratching my head wondering why our choir director decided to hand out an SSAATTBB piece for us to sight-sing through. I went ahead and sang alto so we would at least have four parts.

It was such a strange day at Church!

Perhaps the Choir Director should have had a plan in place to let us sing something we could have managed better with just 2 parts. Here are some options for those strange days that happen from time to time.
Easy 2-Part Mixed Chorus

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But the Organ Bench is Backwards!

5/2/2023

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Sometimes disasters happen! Seasoned musicians can usually turn their lemons into lemonade, but what happens if an inexperienced person is faced with the same challenges?

My daughter was in charge of Stake Conference music last weekend. They live in an area where distances are great and Stake-wide participation in choirs is very difficult. This go around she decided to try forming a Women's chorus.

She hoped that she could bypass the problem of not getting enough men to sing SATB and hopefully get support to do some nice SSA pieces. The two rehearsals garnered enough support to balance the sections, but they still were a small group. My daughter usually leads the choirs but this time she needed to accompany. She found someone else to conduct who fortunately was also a trained musician.

The problems started at the Saturday night adult meeting. Unbeknownst to her, the audio/visual equipment for the Zoom was set up in between the piano and organ right where the choir conductor usually stands. That meant that during the meeting the conductor would have to stand right at the knees of the Stake Presidency to lead the choir, but what else could she do? The men even took out one of the pews for the choir. They also left some stacked chairs and equipment debris in place of the pew that made it awkward for the choir to negotiate getting into the choir seats and impossible for the organist to gracefully get from the organ to the piano without walking in front of the General Authority visitor!

My daughter did not know about all of these problems because the Leadership meeting had gone 30 minutes over time. She was faced with trying to address these issues in the same 10 minutes that she was supposed to be playing prelude. And as if these troubles weren't enough, the Visiting Authority also decided to change the hymns that were to be sung and wanted to use the big screen for a video during his talk. Well, the screen when dropped would fall right into the laps of the choir!

When she finally got things on the way to being dealt with, she hopped onto the organ --- only to be surprised that the organ bench had been replaced BACKWARDS! As she was playing, she realized that there was no place to rest her feet! She had to carefully dangle her legs during rests so she wouldn't accidentally play unplanned pedal parts!

Imagine if an inexperienced musician had been faced with these challenges! My daughter was able to deal with these problems because she was a seasoned musician and very capable. But it wasn't fair! Obviously, the people setting up the Zoom equipment did not think about how their "efforts" would disrupt other people's efforts down the line.

I'm sure my daughter made everything look like things were normal, but the heightened anxiety didn't allow her to enjoy the meeting!

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Pacing is Like Juggling

4/30/2023

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The art of PACING is such an important skill to learn! Whether in a Choir Practice or Primary Music Time, good PACING is crucial for success!

PACING is "reading the room" to discern when to change the activity to keep things interesting and to move things along. A good speaker, entertainer, or teacher will keep watching for signs from the audience or class members for what is working and what is NOT. If there are noticeable squirms, yawns, agitation, talking, or general inattention, the savvy leader will take note and try something new to get the attention back.

For Choir Practice, the smart director will have a plan of certain songs to rehearse, but will work intentionally for short periods and then change to a new tactic before the singers lose interest. For example, when "woodshedding parts," the director will not dwell very long on any one section while neglecting the other parts. It is rather like juggling and trying to keep all of the balls in the air at the same time.

In Primary, the song leader should be aware of the children's collective ATTENTION SPAN -- a few minutes at a time is all you've got! Remember that teaching the Gospel through Music does not mean that the children have to master singing an entire song (all 3 verses plus a chorus) in one Music Period! Singing one song for the entire 20 minutes almost always signals that song's untimely death.

It is better to introduce part of a song, sing it a couple of times using good modeling, then go on to something different. Work on several songs each week using a mixture of teaching and reviewing methods. VARIETY is the key to securing proper interest in the songs and moving along towards memorization.

Good PACING brings success!

Varying the TEMPO and STYLE of the songs can also be a great way to keep interest up in Choir Practice and Primary Singing Time. For instance, nobody likes to sing a program of just SLOW songs even if they each are lovely.

Here's an upbeat song for Primary "Put on the Whole Armor of God."

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Building a Church Choir

4/22/2023

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Not many of us as Church Choir Directors have the luxury of directing large well-trained groups. Most of the Ward and even Stake Choirs are less than 25 voices, and even then, are not evenly balanced. What then do we do to compensate?

Of course, we try to recruit as many singers as possible. But sometimes getting a large group together is just not possible. Time, travel, distance, other commitments, family distractions, limited rehearsal space and scheduling, etc. --- there are always good reasons for people NOT to support choir. The trick is to figure out ways to help singers WANT to support Choir.

1. Get to know your possible singers. Find out their needs, time constraints, and desires. (Become their friend.)
2. Learn about their family situations that might play into when you might best schedule rehearsals. (Provide babysitting?)
3. Find out what styles of music they gravitate towards and how hard they are willing to work to perfect the singing.
4. Interview them about their musical abilities -- sight-reading skills, flexibility with singing parts, singing solos, etc.
5. Be sensitive to the needs and abilities of your accompanist. Choose music accordingly.

Armed with this information, you can make a plan. You will then be able to guess the level of difficulty you can use when choosing music. You can judge how many rehearsals it will take to reasonably learn the music. And you will be able to look for songs that will be appealing to the group.

It may be tempting to choose pieces that you sang in college with your a cappella choir or that you've heard the Tabernacle Choir sing. Be sure to check if those pieces could work for a small group. Many of those songs were written for hundreds of voices and full orchestras! The vocal parts may start out fairly simple but then suddenly break into a 4-part Men's section!

The trick is to have a selection of good stuff! Have a few pieces that are easy to learn in maybe one or two rehearsals. (Easy 2-Part Mixed Chorus) Then have a couple of challenge pieces or songs for a holiday coming up that might take longer but are really worth learning! Those are the pieces that the good singers will want to come for! Plan your rehearsals to always be working on several pieces and looking ahead to the harder things. Try to sing as often as possible.

Be patient. It takes some time to establish a good group.

Here is a piece that sounds more sophisticated than it really is. If you have a good accompanist with medium level skills, try this 2-Part Mixed Chorus arrangement of "Abide with Me 'tis Eventide."

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The Singer's Comfort Range

3/24/2023

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Once in a while, someone will ask me to help them with a musical problem. A friend texted me this morning wondering about arranging a hymn for a typical Ward Choir. The problem was that her singers complained that what she had written was uncomfortable for them to sing. She asked me what the vocal ranges are for typical Ward Choir singers.

Well, the problem may be more complicated than writing to stay within the typical ranges for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Truth be told, an arrangement may be written sticking to those guidelines and still be uncomfortable for the singers to sing. That's because of something called TESSITURA.

To a singer the word TESSITURA describes the human voice finding its comfort level or its HOME in a song. Every MELODY or HARMONY part is made up of PITCHES, RHYTHMS, and TEMPO. A SONG also adds LYRICS. Trying to sing a lot syllables on quick rhythms on pitches that straddle the PASSAGIO (mid-range shift between registers) or are in the extreme high or low registers can just feel uncomfortable to the singer.

For example, the Soprano part towards the end of Handel's "Hallelujah" Chorus dances on Treble D for many measures at Forte. Treble D is right on the PASSAGIO for a Soprano. Lots of repeated notes on Treble D can get very tiring. She would prefer notes in that part of her register to be soaring on long open vowels with no busy lyrics.

Music written that looks like it lies perfectly within the singer's range, may actually be deceiving. A Tenor's speaking voice may fall right around Middle C. He may feel perfectly comfortable singing "speaking lyrics" on those notes that if written in Treble clef are right around Treble C. So, because those notes are well within the Soprano range, they should feel comfortable for a woman to sing, too. Right?

Not necessarily. For a Soprano, those notes fall right on her PASSAGIO. Those pitches are NOT in her "speaking" range, and depending on how fast the lyrics are, they surely require a lot of jaw action to form the consonants. This can definitely cause strain and discomfort.

So, if you are arranging for the various voices, ask your singers if those parts feel comfortable. If they say that they would feel more comfortable if the music was transposed a little lower or higher depending on the TESSITURA, believe them. The pain is real!

"I Know that My Redeemer Lives"- duet for Sop/Sop is an example of a hymn arrangement that was written especially for two high Soprano voices. Even though the melodic ranges are very high, the words soar on the pitches. The TESSITURA is comfortable for both singers.

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Peace, Peace Be Still

2/23/2023

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After reading the accounts of many people whose stories tell of times when they have been in real peril, I look at my life and think how blessed I have been. Yes, my husband has passed, and there are many things I am having to learn that he took care of that are difficult for me. Besides, I miss him. But all in all, I have family members close by that are very willing to help me.

Still, last month was hard. The cold and grey of January was just bringing me down. My neighbor wrote an article for our Ward news letter about how to deal with the "doldrums" and it sounded just like how I felt. Turning to the Savior with renewed energy of heart and serving as He did really helped. When the storms of life seem too much for us, we can take hold of the Savior's promise that we can find peace in Him.

In Maryland, when I was serving as the Stake Music Coordinator and Choir Director, I was amazed that every time Stake Conference was on the horizon, I would be inspired to write an arrangement. I never knew if the music that was going around in my head would be on the theme the Stake President wanted. And sometimes it wasn't. Still, it was nice to get some inspiration to write a song or create a choral arrangement of a hymn.

One time, the Stake President asked me to have the choir sing two specific hymns. I shook my head and said, "You realize that these two hymns are very similar, in fact they have the same tempo and feel. Don't you think you need a little variety?" We did a little compromise and settled on slower hymn near the beginning and "Master, the Tempest Is Raging" SATB to lead into his talk.

It just so happened that it was the arrangement I had been working on. Because it has such a narrative text, I decided to treat each verse with a little different flavor. The first two verses are sung mostly in unison with urgency and in a minor tonality. The accompaniment has motion as if the boat is riding terrifying waves. The first part of chorus is sung in parts rising to a big crescendo. Then, the mood changes at, "They all shall sweetly obey His will. Peace, peace be still."

The transition is reminiscent of the parting of storm clouds with the sun shining over a calm lake. The third verse, "Master the terror is over, the elements sweetly rest..." is sung lyrically with relief in the voices. The chorus follows the shape of a crescendo, but with testimony instead of fear. Ending very quietly with the Savior's words, "Peace, peace be still."

"Look to me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not." D & C 6:36

"Master the Tempest Is Raging" Solo

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Singing with an Orchestral Conductor

2/21/2023

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Choral conductors and Orchestral conductors often have very different styles. For example, an orchestral conductor often sets the beat to get things started, then expects the players to stick with the set tempo and count. He will then use his motions to indicate dynamics and articulations and the general "feel" of the composition. He will only beat time when a tempo change is needed or working through a difficult passage.

On the other hand, a choral conductor understands that the choir is made up of many individuals who need guidance for entrances and cut-off's, especially when they involve tricky consonants like "ch," "t," or "s." Vocalists also depend on the conductor for guides to shaping vowels and phrasing, as well as overall help to keep the lyrics crisp and understandable.

When I have sung under the batons of orchestral conductors, I remember how hard it was to cue into their moves. We singers could hardly distinguish an ictus let alone interpret other conducting maneuvers. Sure, we got that they were indicating mood and pathos, but we definitely were used to more spoon-feeding from our regular choral conductors. We depended on precise preparatory beats for breaths and entrances, plus clear cut-off's. Many singers do not have the training that band and orchestra players do when it comes to counting. Besides, it helps to be able to get to know the conductor and get used to his style. Usually, our choirs only got to sing with the orchestral conductor for special projects or a one-time performance. Not really enough time to truly get to know the conductor.

While attending a concert the other night, I enjoyed watching the conductor who was a world-renown orchestral conductor. Again, he was mainly conducting for the orchestra who did not need preparatory beats for taking breaths, or clear cut-off's to unite difficult consonants. I was proud of the choir to be able to do as well as they did without the benefit of beat patterns or even cue indications. They all had to count as precisely as clarinets and violins. Their diction was good, but maybe I could understand them because I knew the piece pretty well. Who knows.

Kudos to the choir for holding their own!

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Style Changes

2/17/2023

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Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750

My daughter and I like to play a listening game in the early mornings when I drive her to the train station. We listen to the music and try to guess what style period it belongs to. Some are very easy to determine because we already know the piece or can recognized a famous composer's style such as Bach or Mozart or Beethoven. But sometimes we are completely stumped.

Yesterday a piece was playing (of course we turned on the radio after it had been introduced by the announcer) that had a lot of Baroque characteristics, but the instruments used and the phrasings made it seem wrong for that period. Besides, some of the articulations were very modern. Happily our guesses were validated because it was a French Impressionist composer from the late 19th century who had made an arrangement of a Baroque composer's themes.

Nearly every composer learns by studying and using techniques and ideas from previous style periods, at least to start out. Then, as they grow their own skills, and listen to music by contemporaries, they develop their own style characteristics. Then there are those composers who borrow from so many styles and mix and match ideas from many sources, that some pieces sound rather befuddled. That's when "NEO" is applied to their work. For example, if a composition from the 20th century hearkens back to the Classical period it is then called NeoClassicism, and so forth.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

But how does a composer truly become an original? I'm sure that Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven didn't analyze their own music and consciously say to themselves "I think I'll create a completely new STYLE PERIOD in music today." They may have wanted to push the envelope of music in their day, but I doubt that they worried about how musicologists would categorize their music for future generations. I think Genius plays a big role in whether a composer becomes a transitional figure or not.

Then there are Church Musicians, people who compose for worship services. Those composers have a difficult job because they need to please the worshippers more than themselves. People like what they know. Older people in particular dislike CHANGE. They feel comfort in styles that are familiar in a sacred way. Changes in adopting newer musical idioms for worship services are SLOW in coming, but they do come. Older generations eventually die off. That's partially why we get new hymnals and Children's Songbooks.

But who's to say when adopting newer styles are good or not? When popular styles are used for worship is it because that's the only style of music the song writers or congregants know? I for one am troubled when I hear the Primary children belt out loudly singing a very sacred lyric about the Savior's atonement to a pop power ballad. When the focus of the singing is about how the performer is performing and not about WORSHIP, I cringe. To me that has the same effect as scraping on a chalkboard. (Oh, that's right, we don't do chalkboards anymore.) But that's also true of any performance -- be it Operatic, Classical, Contemporary, Modern, World, Pop, and the list goes on.

True worship can be offered in any STYLE, but only when done intentionally. For that to happen, the performers must think less of themselves and more of giving their offering to God.

For example, here's a piece that could potentially focus more attention on itself than was intended. This is an arrangement of a newer LDS hymn "From Homes of Saints Glad Songs Arise" SATB. It has been given a bit of a lilt by lopping off an eight note every so often. Some people might get mixed up trying to count this one. That was not the intent. The intent was to propel the message forward with a joyful lift. The syncopations should be light in the first two verses, then when the beats become regular 4/4 near the end, the meaning is emphasized and powerful. Enjoy!

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Camelot

1/25/2023

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Whittier Stake Center on Mulberry Lane

When my husband and I were first married, we moved from college life in Utah to his home town in Whittier, California. Ellis had tried to explain that the people in the Stake where he grew up were my "people." I just smiled and nodded, but didn't really believe him.

He had said that there were some tremendously talented musical people in the Whittier 7th Ward and that I would instantly love them. They were always doing big events like Roadshows, Dance Festivals, full-scale Musicals, and other programs at the drop of a hat. In fact, their Roadshows were known to win "All Church" honors and be presented at June Conference in Salt Lake City.

Betsy and Ellis Bailey 1978

I confess that I listened to Ellis talk and found what he said very hard to believe. But it wasn't long before I learned that what he told me was absolutely true! From the first time I met Joan Haskins, Marylyn Thorn, Joan Ostler, Joyce Nuttall and many others, I was duly impressed. Soon, they had me singing for any and all events. Who knew that Wards even had monthly Elegant Dinners, Talent Shows, dances and other get-togethers? And the ward choir was huge --- easily 40+ people. Who could resist coming to rehearsals when the reward was Joan Haskins' homemade pancakes?

These were indeed my "people." Those were the days when the Church provided much of its own "culture." We were encouraged to do many activities in Music, Drama, Art, Dance, and Sports. In fact, these kinds of activities were outlined by the General Board of the Mutual Improvement Association (MIA) for the Youth. My growing up years in the Church were filled with lots of glittery, sparkly events. Everywhere we lived (many places across the country) my mother made sure that these Church-sponsored events were done "to the nines." The people in Ellis' ward growing up did the same -- maybe even more so since there were simply more like-minded folks.

Apparently, those years of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s were very special to a lot of the Whittier locals. So special and unique, they called it Camelot --- a time and place most people only dream about. It truly was a special time, a time probably never to be repeated. So glad I was privileged to be part of at least some of those good times!

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Anything BUT a Formal Concert

Such a Strange Day

But the Organ Bench is Backwards!

Pacing is Like Juggling

Building a Church Choir

The Singer's Comfort Range

Peace, Peace Be Still

Singing with an Orchestral Conductor

Style Changes

Camelot

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